Wiens files appeal: "That's just who he is"

By Shannon Quesnel

Former Mountie Keith Gregory Wiens, 58, is filing for an appeal from his second-degree murder conviction and life sentence. Wiens was found guilty in July for the Aug. 16 2011 killing of his common-law spouse Lynn Kalmring at their Penticton home.

(SHANNON QUESNEL / iNFOnews.ca)

September 25, 2013 - 5:32 PM

PENTICTON - Convicted killer Keith Wiens should "be a man and do his time" instead of appealing his conviction for second-degree murder, according to family members of Lynn Kalmring, his common-law partner who he shot in the face in an argument over money.

Former Mountie Wiens, 58, filed an appeal on Aug. 23 Crown spokesperson Samantha Hulme says. Wiens made the application himself without a lawyer and is responsible for moving the process forward. Hulme says the Crown has nothing to state at this point.

"Crown will respond in due course at the appropriate time to his application," she added.

But Donna Irwin, Kalmring's sister, has plenty to say. Irwin says the family's not surprised with Wiens' appeal attempt. "That's just who he is."

She refers to a copy of Wiens' appeal application which was published online. She says Wiens complained his unblemished past was not taken into account when he was convicted and sentenced.

"He's just a bad a man and he's where he needs to be," she says. "The world is a safer place with him behind bars."

Irwin says a former spouse of Wiens took two years to leave him because she thought he would kill her. While her family is not surprised with Wiens' appeal application, it is still upsetting.

"Dictating all of this stuff from jail just makes us angry," she explains. "He was a police officer. He shot my sister in the face. And now he thinks he had an unfair trial. He should be a man and do his time."

Irwin and other members also want to visit the former couple homes, one in Penticton and another in Arizona, but are being denied. They want to retrieve Kalmring's belongings.

"We've not been allowed in either one of those residences," she says. "We still don't even have that closure. From jail he's still trying to control and manipulate our family."

Irwin says she and her family want more rights for the victims of crime and have enlisted MP Dan Albas in their fight to change the rules.

OPINION At least part of me wasn’t sure I should write this, given what happened last time. It was August 15, 2003 and like many Thursdays before it, I was scratching around for a column idea. The summer newsroom